Continuing to open up my little scrapbook of pre-digital convention photos, here are a couple related to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and dating back to Comic Con International/San Diego Comic Con 1993 when Malibu Comics was launching its ongoing monthly DS9 comic book series. The company had snuck in under DC’s radar (DC had the other Star Trek rights) and snagged the license from Paramount. That was done by negotiating a top-of-the-market licensing fee and agreeing to certain sales guarantees. And that’s why in addition to the ongoing monthly series, there were multiple mini-series, specials, annuals and various cover gimmicks; there needed to be a minimum of two ST:DS9-related titles shipping each month to justify the fees.

The first issue of ST:DS9 was launching in August of 1993 and it seemed like a great idea to bring in one of the cast for the Con, provided all the right people could make it happen.

They did – licensing people are sweethearts. Alexander Siddig, aka Dr. Bashir, agreed to make the trek to San Diego to help promote the comics, shake hands and smile for countless photos. It should be noted that this was years before the Con became known as a stopover on the celebrity movie-TV tour.

The Direct Market cover to the first issue was by Jerome Moore (the newsstand cover was a photo), and while it was a great cover, it did cause an awkward convention moment. There were seven members of the DS9 main cast, but the symmetry of the cover worked better with just six on display, with the orbiting space station in the center. Dr. Bashir was cut from the cover for design reasons, and approved by Paramount. So it was only natural that (1) he’d be the only cast member available to come to the Con and (2) when he was standing next to the first issue’s cover blow-up, he’d notice right away that he was the only one not on the cover. Awkward. But he was a good sport about it (and I blamed the licensing people), and we spent most of our lunch together that day talking about video games. (Because ST:DS9 was an ensemble show, he had a lot of downtime to kill on the set, and I was just a game geek.)

The top photo is Alexander. The bottom photo is Alexander with Malibu Comics President (now Platinum Studios CEO) Scott Rosenberg.

More to come.

The Cinema Source has a nice interview with Alexander Siddig that’s a couple of years old, but still nifty reading.

Previous installments of Old Convention Photos:
Jim Balent and Lita Ford
Sergio Aragones and Joe Kubert

[Photos © Tom K. Mason]